The baseball pitching apparatus of the present invention provides a good target for a professional level baseball player to focus and gauge the accuracy of his pitches and yet it effectively dissipates the energy and redirects the baseball without any complex mechanism. Prior art reveals several different targets for baseballs and the like but most such devices as U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,774 employs a complex mechanism to help dissipate the energy from a thrown baseball. The frame assembly of the '774 patented device is connected to an underlying base by pivotal bolts and utilizes two extension springs attached diagonally between the frame assembly ends and the base. The other type of angled rearwardly frames with netting as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,863,166 and 4,932,657 also lack the target area and stability of the present invention which provides a large and ample target for pitching but yet captures the thrown baseball without having the baseball bound away if the center target area is missed.
While the '744 patent attempts to alleviate the impact force of pitched baseballs, the spring mechanism and pivoting bolts are going to provided maintenance problems over a number of pitches and the netting overall presents a less desirable target for throwing baseballs because the netting poorly simulates a solid target like a catchers glove and the reference point of where the balls are hitting the netting is hard to decipher for a pitcher.
These baseball target systems, as shown in the prior art, are incapable of addressing the energy dissipating problem yet provide a good pitching target zone for a professional baseball player like the present invention.